Video Friday

Remember on April 1st when I said I would be taking a hiatus from Magpie Mondays until late May but that I would post some interesting bits in the meanwhile? Yeah, that all went down the drain. Not even a Video Friday last week! But I can see the light at the end of what has been a terribly long tunnel at work, and I’ll try to be better for the next couple weeks.

Today I offer a charming short film, The Last Bookshop. Here’s the official description from youtube (but also check out the website):

The Last Bookshop imagines a future where physical books have died out.

One day, a small boy’s holographic entertainment fails, so he heads out to explore the streets of abandoned shops outside. Down a forgotten alley he discovers the last ever bookshop. And inside, an ancient shopkeeper has been waiting over 25 years for a customer…

Produced by The Bakery in the South-East of England, filming took place in 2011, with post-production completed in 2012. The music was composed by Owen Hewson and performed by Arlet.

It is written by Richard Dadd, who also co-directs alongside Dan Fryer.

We love bookshops. But we saw that many are going through tough times.

We wanted to contribute to the cultural debate with our own celebration in support of these glorious independents and their shelves of treasures. So with the help of some remarkable independent bookshops, and a lot of talented friends, we have been able to make our idea for The Last Bookshop into a reality. We hope you enjoy this film and share it with your friends…

"How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, trans. M.D. Herter Norton